OCTOBER NOVEMBER
PORTFOLIO
Semester 2 2025
Due 7 October 2025
, IRM1501
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER PORTFOLIO
Semester 2 2025
Due 7 October 2025
QUESTION 1
Discuss the relevant aspects of the case of Social Justice Coalition and Others v
Minister of Police and Others (CCT 121/21) [2022] ZACC 27; 2022 (10) BCLR 1267
(CC) (19 July 2022).
The case of Social Justice Coalition and Others v Minister of Police and Others (CCT
121/21) [2022] ZACC 27 concerned systemic unfair discrimination in the allocation of
police resources in the Western Cape.¹ The dispute arose from the Khayelitsha
Commission of Inquiry, established in 2012, to investigate policing inefficiencies in
Khayelitsha, a township plagued by high crime but chronically under-resourced police
stations.²
The Commission, chaired by Justice Kate O’Regan and Advocate Vusi Pikoli, concluded
that the South African Police Service’s (SAPS) Theoretical Human Resource
Requirement (THRR) model—unchanged since 2002—was outdated and structurally
biased against poor, Black, and informal communities.³ This bias entrenched
inadequate staffing and exacerbated insecurity, contrary to the Constitution’s
commitments to equality and social justice.
In its 2014 report, the Commission highlighted high murder rates, systemic under-
reporting of crime, and the THRR’s failure to reflect actual community needs. It
recommended urgent redistribution of police resources over a three-year period.⁴
However, limited reforms followed, prompting the Social Justice Coalition, Equal